Marco Bertini has held the crown of ALTO’s highest scoring speaker since his well-received seminar on ‘Pricing for Profit’ in Berlin in 2012, so ALTO was delighted to secure his services once again for our event in Malaga in 2015.
The purpose of this workshop was to explore three ways in which organisations can better align price and brand to boost financial performance. Marco split the workshop into three sessions which gave delegates time to consider the content of each of the sessions over the coffee breaks and lunch, and to discuss Marco’s findings with fellow delegates.
The first of the sessions looked at revenue models and the policies employed by various organisations by examining, what Marco called, the two guiding principles:
- The way a company makes money should track the way it incurs costs. This sounds obvious but Marco stressed that a lot of companies lose sight of this principle, which results in a detrimental effect on the profit of a business.
- The second guiding principle is about value; that the way we make money should track the way a company’s value is perceived.
After the break, Marco looked at branding and pricing, exploring how both are – and should be treated as – communication tools and should send the same message to customers. He explained that often a company’s branding is in conflict with the message the pricing gives.
Delegates looked at examples of how incongruent pricing can destroy branding strategies. This resonated with delegates, as many organisations in the room struggle with these conflicts on a regular basis as prices are driven ever lower while customers are looking for ‘high value’ products.
Session three looked at the psychology of price, in particular how customers make illogical decisions ‘on the fly’ often based on environment. There were examples of how customers ranked the same coffee in ‘blind tests’ differently on several different occasions, saying they would pay vastly different prices for it, based on how it was presented to them. The conclusion being that an organisation can use the environment to influence the price a customer is willing to pay for its product.
The event was well-received and well-attended by both ALTO members and industry leaders interested in finding out more about the association. Nicola Whyley of Experience English commented, “The event was very enjoyable, giving plenty of food for thought as well as key points that I can take back to the organisation for consideration.”
